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I schooled my expression. This was news to me. His son, though sixteen, had never been photographed or caught outside the city walls. Now I knew why.
“We thought we cured it, but it has come back.”
My mouth stayed firmly closed, and I wondered why he was sharing this and what it had to do with me.
“Your name has come up over and over as the best in the world to find lost treasure.”
“You want me to find you treasure?” I blinked at him. “You don’t have enough money to pay for treatment here? That gold statue could buy the entire hospital.” I gestured with my head; my hands still pinned behind me.
“You see, this treasure is not gold or jewels.” A strange look glinted in his eyes. “It isfarmore valuable than all the diamonds and money in the world.” He came closer to me, his voice dropping very low. “Especially to us humans. Especially to my son, who is no longer responding to treatments.”
My mouth was ready to get sassy, to say something smart-assed back, but I couldn’t forget who he was, what he was capable of. And though it pissed me off to no end, I didn’t have Croygen’s silver-tongued ways. He could say anything and get away with it. My strengths were in other areas. I wasn’t going to sleep with Batara, and I couldn’t kill him right now.
“Being fae, you are aware of the power of fae food.” He strolled slowly to his desk.
“Yes, but it was all destroyed when the wall fell.” Before our worlds collided, if humans found their way into the Otherworld and ate or drank fae food, they could never eat human food again. Nothing else but fae food would satisfy them, pouring magic into their system. It became an addiction. All they craved. They would slowly go insane without it if they went back to Earth’s realm, starving themselves until they died. The upside was that eating fae magic turned them more fae-like. They were cured of all diseases and sicknesses, lived for centuries, and were much less fragile than humans.
All pure fae food was lost when the barrier dropped. Humans who heard this tale had been searching the globe for something like it, coming up empty.
“You know it doesn’t exist anymore. It won’t help your son.”
He pressed his fingers into the top of his desk, taking another breath. “What if something is out there like it?”
“Like fae food?” I shook my head. “There’s not. Nothing survived. Earth nullified all that type of magic.”
He cleared his throat. “There are whispers about an object found after the Fae War, which bestowed humans with immortality, strength, and magic. Curing them of disease and weakness. In other words, it turned them fae without the side effects.”
“It sounds like wishful thinking to me, a fairy tale, and I live in a world of myths and legends.”
“There is a scientist who is convinced it is real.”
“Then he’s a quack.”
“I do not believe he is, and he is not the only one claiming its authenticity,” Batara stated. “I believe it is real. You will find this object.” A muscle twitched in his cheek, anger flaring his nose. “And bring it back to me.”
“You want me to find something that is nothing more than a story? That might not exist?”
“This is not up for negotiation. Your survival depends on it.”
My catlike eyes glided over the room, my magic pushing against the goblin metal, feeling the threat to my life rising. Did I have enough energy to shift? To escape all the obstacles and slip out of this room? I couldn’t hide under the sofa forever, and no doors were open to get away.
“I see we are still hesitant. Then let me raise the stakes. A ship is essential to a pirate, is it not?” A smug smile hinted on his face as he grabbed a folder out of his desk.
Bile burned up the back of my throat.
“Your ship,The Revenge, is now being boarded by my men.” His dark eyes met mine. “I’m holding it as collateral.”
“What?” My heart sank. It wasn’t just a ship to me. It was a symbol of my success. My home. My entire world. It carried everything which meant anything to me. The last letters my father ever wrote me before he was murdered. A necklace from my mother. “You can’t take my ship!”
“I just did.”
“How the hell do you expect me to find this object for you, then?”
He strolled to me with the file in his hand. “I will allow you the use of one of my boats.” I flinched at the termboat. It was always obvious who didn’t breathe the sea air in their lungs as they used those terms interchangeably.
“My crew?”
“They are also being held as insurance.”
